Beastlord Warders (EQ2)

Beastlord pets are called Warders. The warders are broken up into 16 families: 12 normal and 4 exotic. Each race starts with one of the warder families. At level 10 the Beastlord gains the ability Tame Warder which can be used to add a new warder to their arsenal.

Tame Warder can be used once a mob that is tameable is knocked down to at least 50% health (25% health for exotics). The Beastlord must not have a warder summoned to be able to use Tame Warder. The first AA in the Animist tree, Beastlord Sight, can aid the Beastlord in finding warders that can be tamed. The Tame Warder ability does have a long cast time and can be interrupted, but the Stare Down ability, which briefly stuns the mob, can be used while casting Tame Warder. Using Cheap Shot before using Tame Warder may also help.

Once the warder is tamed it will become the Beastlord's active pet. If the Beastlord did not already have a summon ability for the family that their new warder belongs to they will be granted that ability.

The appearance of the warders can be changed depending on what was tamed. For example, both cows and deer are part of the Bovid family. If the Beastlord first tames a deer, they would have a deer appearance warder. Later on the Beastlord can replace their Bovid's appearance by going and taming that cow they found. The only way to switch back to a previous warder appearance is by retaming a mob again that will give the particular appearance.

The level of the warder will increase with the Beastlord. The spell rank of each warder summoning ability will increase over time as the Beastlord uses Primal Tactics while fighting with a warder from that particular family (this is called Pet Affinity). On beta the warder summoning abilities started at Journeyman rank for the default. Upgrades to the warder summoning abilities cannot be researched or crafted. When your warder increases in rank you will get a status text notification informing you that "your affinity with your pet has increased!".

Exotic Warders cannot be tamed until at least level 80. They require at least 80 Alternate Advancement (AA) points to be spent in the Beastlord tree, 10 of which must be delegated to the Sentinel's Fate AAs at the bottom of the tree. The endline Sentinel's Fate AA is Tame Exotic Warder. As of the end of beta, the Stare Down ability could not be used on exotic creatures and the health of the creature needs to be at 25% before you can use Tame Exotic Warder on it.